Mike from Topeka, Kansas, USA
Subject:
Driving me bananas!
Quality:
It's as well-made as any other banana plug I've seen.
Features:
I like the molded-in strain relief on the side, and the polarity tab on the one edge. I didn't like the fact that of the four plugs I received, two were black and two were red -- The description here doesn't say anything about red ones.
Ease of Use:
In general, I HATE banana plugs! I bought these out of necessity because I have one power amp that doesn't have Speakon connectors. The only good things about bananas are that they are fairly ubiquitous (my amps that have Speakons also have bananas), and they are usually stackable -- allowing you to connect multiple cables to one output (also they keep your conductors separated so that a short circuit is not likely). But the downsides are that they wear out from repeated inserting and removing from the jack, the screws that hold the wire leads in place loosen up over time and you end up with a bad connection, there is nothing to prevent you from plugging them in backwards (putting your speakers 180 degrees out-of phase), they snag on other cables etc. when you're packing up, and they're UGLY! (They don't conceal the stripped ends of the cable like every other type of connector does). All that being said, these plus are easy enough to use – you just need a small screwdriver.